05 June 2012

WI Gov Walker Wins Recall Election

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has become the first governor in the country's history to survive a recall election. NBC, CNN and Fox News called the race shortly before 10PM /ETfor the anti-gay union-busting Republican governor, reports WTMJ and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The Republican governor held onto his seat in a rematch with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who Walker beat by nearly 6 percentage points in 2010. Turnout Tuesday was far higher than it had been 19 months earlier.

Plans to recall Walker started shortly after he introduced his plan last year to all but eliminate collective bargaining for public workers. The plan prompted tens of thousands protesters to occupy the Capitol and Senate Democrats to leave the state for three weeks in an effort to block the bill, but Walker's fellow Republicans managed to send the measure to him for his signature in March 2011.

The Tea Party-backed governor filed a motion in May 2011 seeking to allow the state to withdraw from defending its domestic partnership law. Walker claimed the law was unconstitutional and fired the law firm defending the challenge. A state court later ruled that the DP law was constitutional, offered only "limited benefits" and did not "remotely resemble marriage."